Forgetting

• What is proactive interference?


  Past memories inhibit an individuals potential to retain new information
• What is retroactive interference?


  New information interferes with recall of past information
• Support for proactive interference:

  Keppel and Underwood (1962) - When presented with trigrams, and having to count back in multiples of 3, Ps typically remembered trigrams presented first. This suggests proactive interference occurred, as memory for the earlier trigrams was interfering with ability to remember new trigrams
• Support for retroactive interference:

  Schmidt et al - 211 Ps. 15% never moved house, 1 had moved over 40 times. Asked to recall street names around the area they lived in. Measured amount of retroactive interference. Found learning of new street names affected recall of old street names, so retroactive interference occurred
• What are some limitations of interference theory?

  • Tells us little about cognitive processes involved in forgetting
  • Most research is lab based so has low ecological validity and can’t generalise
  • How much forgetting is due to interference is unclear
• What is cue dependent theory?

  Reinstating the internal state or external context makes recall easier
• What is context-dependent forgetting?


  The environment during recall is different to the environment when learned
• What is state-dependent forgetting?


  The mood or physical state is different during recall to when you learned it
• Who did the diver study?

  Golden and Baddley
• What were Golden and Baddley investigating?

  Context-dependent forgetting
• What were the four conditions in Golden and Baddeley’s study?

  Learning underwater, recalling underwater

  Learning on land, recalling on land

  Learning underwater, recalling on land

  Learning on land, recalling underwater
• What did Golden and Baddeley find?

  Ps recalled more words in the environment they learned them in, external context acted as a cue for recall
• What was an issue with Golden and Baddeley’s study?

  Groups had to change environment so were disrupted, which could’ve influenced recall

  Doesn’t take into account individual motivation
• What did Darley et al do?

  Had Ps hide money while high on weed, and they were more able to find the money again when high than if they weren’t